Crapuul | 2023
The project Crapuul in the Basement has been thought up by artist and curator Corina Karstenberg for Transport Artspace, an exhibition venue currently located in the Landbouwbelang, Maastricht. The book ‘Crapuul. Kroniek van een krottenwijk.’, written by Frank Bokern has been the inspirational source for this project.
The book is about the former inhabitants of the Stokstraatkwartier, a small neighborhood in the center of Maastricht and, without a doubt, the most peculiar victim of the industrial revolution. At first, around 1840, the neighborhood belonged to the upper class, but soon became a melting pot for the workers, beggars and prostitutes, Crapuul as they say in Maastricht. The palaces turned into ruins that continued to be inhabited by the less fortunate. It took Maastricht over a 100 years to finally intervene, its approach however being draconian.
The inhabitants were being forced to move to ‘residential schools’, meant to turn them into ‘decent’ citizens. Today this still causes a stigma around the former residents and this book has greatly helped rehabilitating them by telling their story through extensive interviews with them.
The goal with this project is to give the people that grew up as a child in the area and are now in their late 70’s/80s, a face. Literally by making portraits of them. The story has already been told through the book but not everybody reads. Photographs are much more accessible and allow for the story to be told in a different way, to a broader audience. The portraits have been made using the wet plate collodion process as it dates from the same period the book ‘Crapuul’ begins. They have been shown for the first time during the Museumnacht Maastricht 2023 with, on the background, sound clips from interviews in Maastrichter dialect with the former inhabitants used for the creation of the book, which Frank so kindly gave us access to. Frank has also been so kind as to introduce us and our intentions to these former residents, which made all of this possible.
Crapuul, the Sequel
During these photo sessions some interesting conversations took place which triggered new ideas. In the week from June 10th until June 18th 2023 the photos will be exhibited once more, both at Transport Artspace at Landbouwbelang, and at the Bookshop Dominicanen. On top of that there will be extra activities, meant to take this history even further.
These activities will be freely accessible so that everybody will have a chance, not only to enjoy these beautiful portraits, but also to hear the stories that took place during that period in the Stokstraatkwartier.
The exact program will follow later on.
